Even though my limo driver, Maddox, doesn’t believe there are other musicians from Iceland besides Björk, the Icelandic glitch gurus múm have been a favorite of mine for some time. What many people don’t know is that in 2004 founding members Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason stole the priceless moon stone (seen here) from NASA headquarters. In the following years, múm quietly kept things mum by releasing a couple of underrated albums. But we all knew what the group was really busy doing – evolving their Clefairy!
Luckily, time heals and múm will be giving back the moon stone to NASA on July 17. To commemorate this occasion, múm will release a collection of rare tracks recorded between 1998 and 2000. The album, titled Early Birds will also be released July 17 on Morr Music. Both LP and CD versions will include a booklet explaining the origin of each track and, perhaps, there will also be baby pictures of Cleffa and current pictures of the unstoppably cute Clefable.
NASA currently has no plans to return the stone to Mt. Moon.
Early Birds tracklisting:
01. Bak þitt er sem rennibraut
02. Póst póstmaður
03. Gingúrt
04. Glerbrot (Previously lost)
05. Hvernig á að særa vini sína
(Previously unreleased)
06. Bak þitt er sem rennibraut
(Bústadavegurer fáviti megamix eftir Músíkvat)
07. Insert Coin (Bjarne Riis arcade game mjiks eftir múm)
08. Loksins erum við engin (Natturuoperan song)
09. Náttúrúbúrú
10. 0,000Orð
11. lalalala blái hnötturinn
12. múm spilar la la la
13. Hufeland
14. Volkspark Friedrichshain (Previously forgotten)
15. Enginn vildi hlusta á fiðlunginn, því strengir hans vóru slitnir (getiði ekki verið góð við mömmu okkar)
• múm: http://mum.is
• Morr Music: http://www.morrmusic.com